Rood: Response to account of drug death encourages sister, others to act

Jan. 26, 2012
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For the first time in more than a year and a half, Lisa Nauman feels a little better.

An outpouring of empathy and outrage expressed this week over her brother’s death spurred not only the 33-year-old single mom into action, but also her extended family and friends, numerous Urbandale city officials and state legislators.

“You don’t know how much my attitude has changed,” Nauman said, wearing a cautious smile Tuesday night outside Urbandale’s City Council chambers. “I just didn’t know where to begin.”

Since the story of Chad Nauman’s slow overdose death inside an Urbandale motel appeared in this week’s Des Moines Sunday Register, Lisa Nauman has organized a protest, researched possible changes to state law, reached out to lawmakers and prosecutors, and spoken before a City Council meeting.

Urbandale Police Chief Ross McCarty, Mayor Bob Andeweg and several council members all have expressed to Nauman’s family their concern and condolences. All have zeroed in since on the Motel Relax, a well-known home of last resort for folks teetering on the edge of homelessness.

The run-down extended-stay motel at 7625 Hickman Road was the site of 350 police calls last year. It’s also where at least a half dozen drug users and acquaintances came and went from a room while, in August 2010, an unconscious Chad Nauman lay slowly dying in a heap on the floor.

McCarty, before expressing his own private regrets and encouragement to Lisa Nauman and her family on Tuesday night, made a public plea at the council meeting for witnesses to come forward with new information.

The problem with the case, he said, was six different people could be blamed in part for what happened.

“If there is a witness out there, we could certainly take the case back to prosecutors,” he said.

The chief told council members about a community policing plan he’s devised to better address crime at the motel. He also scheduled a meeting Tuesday with Jill Mollison, identified by motel staff this week as the owner, and made plans to huddle with the U.S. attorney’s office “to find out where the ball was dropped.”

Chad Nauman had gone to the motel to party with two “friends,” who witnesses said had high-grade heroin. One of those friends, J.C. Warren Lee, was in the room nearly all of the next day while the 35-year-old was unconscious on the floor. Others came and went, but 911 was not called until Nauman had been out for about 12 hours.

Sixteen months went by, and a federal grand jury heard evidence. The Urbandale detective investigating told Lisa and her mother he believed they had a solid criminal case. Then, in December, they were devastated when state and federal prosecutors sat them down and said no criminal charges were being filed.

Making that realization all the more devastating was the fact that prosecutors did find a way this month to charge someone else in a similar death at the motel.

On Saturday, the Register ran a story about charges that were filed in connection with the 2011 death of another man, Michael Mehalovich, 26.

Christina Garner, a 55-year-old resident of the motel who has a lengthy criminal record, now faces involuntary manslaughter charges for allegedly providing Mehalovich with the drugs that killed him.

Mollison, who has been on bed rest and is 20 weeks into a difficult pregnancy, has been cooperative with McCarty thus far in discussions about the motel, the chief told me.

She said Wednesday afternoon she intended to answer questions about crime and crime prevention efforts at the Motel Relax if I would submit them to her in writing. However, she said, she would be unable to answer the questions until late Wednesday night.

Mollison declined to say whether there were other owners of the motel.

This week, state Sen. Matt McCoy, Rep. Clel Baudler and others at the Statehouse told me they have begun exploring possible changes to Iowa’s manslaughter and Good Samaritan laws that might allow prosecutors to charge those culpable in such deaths.

McCarty said he knows personally that both state and federal prosecutors worked hard on the case, but loopholes in the law and troubles pinning down the dealer or dealers involved hurt the case.

The absence of charges gnaws at Lisa Nauman, in spite of her progress. She finds it impossible to believe authorities could not charge anyone, especially since a witness said Lee gave Chad Nauman heroin.

Police also found prescription drugs on Lee at the time they came to the motel, as well as needles and other paraphernalia, reports show.

This week, Nauman set up a “Stop Motel Relax” Facebook page and invited people to join her at a protest at 5 p.m. Saturday outside the motel.

“About 1,200 9-1-1 calls have been made to this motel in the last three years,” she wrote to friends. “We must do something to stop it.”

She no longer feels alone.

Frank Butler, her stepfather, is among those who have stepped forward to join her Saturday at the Motel Relax.

“Shut them down,” he told council members Tuesday. “Try to get them to attract a different clientele. It could be a wonderful place, but it’s not today. It’s a hellhole.”